A raw file is the unprocessed data that was captured by your camera sensor when you took your picture. The only settings on your camera that apply to this file are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. This means that any effects you may have applied to the file, such as white balance or black and white, may not appear in Lightroom. Your camera will create a JPEG copy of your raw file with all current settings applied and save that within the raw file for use as a thumbnail by most applications. When you first view a raw file in Lightroom, you will see this thumbnail, then Lightroom will read the raw data and create its own thumbnail, which may have a different appearance.

How does Lightroom work with raw camera files?

Lightroom interprets the raw data and makes image information out of it. But every camera has a unique sensor and thus has a unique form of raw file. Even though camera manufactures may use the same file extension each time (e.g. Nikon raw files are always .NEF), each camera model has a different way of storing information. Because of this, we must continually update Lightroom for new cameras. As we add new cameras to the list (over 300 now) we update our published list of supported cameras.

Will the raw files from my camera work with Lightroom?

To determine whether your camera is supported by Lightroom, check this list:

Lightroom has the ability to automatically import images from your camera, as you shoot, life. To learn more about setting up and useing tethered capture, please see Import photos from a tethered camera. This list shows all the cameras that Lightroom supports for tethered shoooting:

Will Lightroom help me automatically compensate for the image distortion caused by my camera lens?

The Develop module of Lightroom includes Lens Correction which can read what lens was used from the metadata. With this information it can pick a profile that will reduce distortion caused by the curvature of the lens. For a list of which lenses are supported by which camera bodies, see this list: